Sonora's economy faces important challenges in the new millennium. This article analyzes local transformations in three dimensions: a) regional economic specialization and changing patterns in the economic geography of the state, based on municipal specialization indexes; b) the service sector's key variables, highlighting its new dynamics and the importance of professional services; and c) the condition of support infrastructure for industrial activity, using synthetic indexes. One of the main challenges is an in-depth analysis of regional specialization because it is not homogenous; infrastructure is limited in several municipalities and services are offered in a traditional manner, so that, in many cases, specialization is a result of the crisis of primary activities.